My pride in not being a "front end guy" is notoriously obnoxious and
obviously compensatory. On the other hand, having crappy front ends
for my projects might help disguise deeper flaws and thus actually be
an advantage.

Came a time, however, when I wanted to make myself a logo. Faced
with the horrific prospect of doing actual art, I had no real choice
but to use markup. Make no
mistake, the linguae francae of our browsable universe -- html, css
and javascript -- are a collective insult to science and beauty. But
you can do cool stuff sometimes.